Apple Music has a new visual identity, and its most distinctive feature wasn’t simply drawn on a screen. Instead, Apple turned music into physical movement, using sound vibrations and a bath of mineral oil to create the rippling effects that define its redesigned logo.

Unveiled on October 21, 2026, the rebrand marks a significant update to Apple Music’s visual identity since the streaming service launched in 2015. Developed with British music producer Fred again.. and his collaborator NEST Acoustics, the project revolves around a straightforward idea: making sound visible.

Apple documented the creative process in a behind-the-scenes film titled Apple Music. Made by Sound, showing how an original musical composition became the foundation for the service’s refreshed branding.

How Apple Music turned sound into a logo

Rather than creating a conventional digital animation, the team built a physical setup that could translate musical frequencies into movement. A transducer, a device that converts audio signals into mechanical vibrations, was placed in a shallow bath of mineral oil.

The team played individual notes through the apparatus, causing the liquid to move in response to the frequencies. With acrylic versions of the Apple Music logo positioned within the setup, the resulting waves, reflections and distortions created the fluid visual effects seen in the finished identity.

The footage was captured in camera, allowing the movement of the liquid and the way it refracted light to shape the final look. The result is a series of rippling, glass-like patterns that change with the sound rather than relying entirely on computer-generated effects.

Getting the balance right required months of experimentation. The musical composition and physical setup had to work together to produce patterns that were visually expressive without becoming too chaotic to recognise the branding.

Fred again.. and NEST Acoustics collaborated on the original composition, breaking it down into individual notes that could be used to develop both the visual treatment and Apple Music’s new sonic identity.

A new look for Apple Music

The redesigned identity extends beyond the liquid-inspired effects. Apple has updated its wordmark with a custom, bold, lowercase treatment of its SF Pro typeface, pairing the lettering with the familiar Apple symbol.

The musical-note icon has also received a refreshed appearance, drawing on the shapes, colours and light refractions captured during the physical experiments. Together, the elements create a more fluid visual language that connects the service’s branding to the experience of listening to music.

The approach also fits Apple’s broader Liquid Glass design direction, which uses transparency, reflections and layered visual effects across its software interfaces. Here, however, those qualities come from a physical process inspired by sound rather than simply being applied as a digital interface effect.

Apple had already teased the new identity in September through branding associated with Apple Music Hall, its live music venue in Battersea, London. The company officially introduced the refreshed look in October, accompanied by the film explaining how it was made.

The rollout is intended to extend across Apple Music’s original content, event programming, marketing and product experiences, giving the service a more consistent identity across different formats.

For listeners, the redesign is primarily a visual and audio branding update rather than a new music-streaming feature. Its significance lies in how Apple connects the service’s identity to its central purpose: music itself.

Instead of treating the logo and its accompanying sound as separate design elements, Apple has used the same creative process to bring them together. The result is a brand mark that doesn’t merely represent music; its defining visual effects are a physical record of sound in motion.